Columbus Day, 2009

In the Kingsley Amis novel Lucky Jim, Jim is a young history lecturer whose department chair forces him to write a paper on fifteenth century European sailing ships, a paper Jim finds totally boring and useless. I suspect Mr. Amis found himself at the faculty dining table, buttonholed by one of the history faculty who was excited by a paper on the same subject as the one in the novel, and Mr. Amis made his character feel about the subject just as Mr. Amis felt, making for a great comic novel, and one I recommend.

However, the fifteenth century European sailing ship developments probably led to European domination of the entire world for several centuries, and on this day in 1492, one of the major successes took place as Columbus reached the West Indies.

In school, I was taught that Columbus was the first person to realise the world was round. This, as it happens, was a facile explanation for school children. The real story was the Italians had developed a ship that could beat against the wind, and were building a fleet with which to dominate the Med. Columbus took the ideas to Spain, and others took the ideas to Portugal, and both Spain and Portugal began sailing: Spain heading west and Portugal south against the prevailing winds.

Before the fifteenth century, all ships used oarsmen when they had to travel against the wind, which usually meant that their holds were full of oarsmen, who, when rowing, needed lots of food and water. The Vikings managed to row to Iceland and set up a viable colony, and managed to row to Greenland and Canada, but their ships could hold so few women and provisions that both the Greenland and Canadian colonies failed.

But a ship that travels under sail without any oarsmen has a hold that can be filled with food, water, passengers, horses, sheep, cows, and matériel. However, without oarsmen, it must either be able to beat against the wind, or else it can only run before the wind. The 1066 invasion of England used sailing ships that could only run before the wind, and the Normans had to sit and wait for favourable winds. Hoping for all favourable winds is not really an option when exploring new parts of the globe.

Columbus had favourable East winds for two weeks, and feared a mutiny: if the ship ran out of water and no land had been found, there would be no way to get back to Europe before everyone died horrible deaths from thirst. Then the winds turned Westerly, and the crew relaxed, knowing that, as long as they were beating against a strong headwind, they could quickly make it back to Spain when the water began to run low. The crew allowed Columbus to beat against the wind for two more months until they spotted land, which would not have been possible before the European fifteenth century sailing ship.

Which was why my imputed history faculty member was so excited about the paper, and why he button-holed Mr. Amis, providing Mr. Amis with the opening scene for Lucky Jim.